So, first of all, we need a lot of mana. The best mana dork in theros draft is Voyaging Satyr. As Brick already said in his article about Greedy Green, this guy lets you play turn 4 on turn 3, and turn 5 on turn 4. And when you're dropping Ill-Tempered Cyclops into Nessian Asp, that difference is huge. Another good common mana dork is Opaline Unicorn. He's much slower than Satyr, and he gets killed by cards like Artisan's Sorrow or Wild Celebrants. We don't need to have many mana colors (though splashing is a good option), so we don't want more than two copies of him. Burnished Hart is obviously good here, too.
This cards are quite similar to Greedy Green's mana fixing. But there are two other cards that make the difference for us. Satyr Hedonist is the main one. This guy is a Dark Ritual on legs, and playing him on turn 2 will usually mean a Nessian Asp or Nemesis of Mortals is coming on turn 3. The other one is Karametra's Acolyte. While being uncommon, one or two copies of this girl will mean we'll be hitting 8 or 9 mana reliably, which allows us to monstrify all our creatures, and use cards like Boulderfall, which would be rather bad.
So, now we have a lot of mana. What do we do with it? Basically, stomp our opponents with big monsters. Two of the best monsters are common: Ill-Tempered Cyclops and Nessian Asp. Those creatures are both efficienty costed bodies, but the monstrosity just makes them a real nightmare for the opponent. Removal is kinda slow and overcosted in this set, and most of the time, our guys will chunk our opponent's life total before dying. Vulpine Goliath might not have Monstrosity, but it's a great beater, and it's amazing with bestow.
At uncommon, we get the amazing BOMB Nemesis of Mortals. A turn 3 nemesis thanks to Satyr Hedonist is a huge tempo swing, and it puts us to a very favorable position. Stoneshock Giant isn't as good as the rest of the monster team, but he's a big creature, and the monstrosity effect, while easy to play around, usually means we'll be getting a lot of damage.
Another good thing from this archetype, is that we have good removal. Rage of Purphoros and Lightning Strike are both excellent commons, and Time to Feed is awesome with all the huge creatures we have. Shredding Winds is a card you should bet for the side, to stop WX heroic decks.
But a card that's worth a second look here is Boulderfall. Thanks to all the mana ramp, we'll be hitting 8 mana easily, and having 1 or 2 copies to top our curve is excellent. At instant speed, this card clears two or three creatures, or it can finish an opponent. And it's a card that always wheels, so it's really easy to get some copies.
Drafting the Deck:
Most of our best monsters are common. That means it's not difficult to get some copies of them. But they are high valued cards, so they should be your first picks. The most important picks are Ill-Tempered Cyclops and Nessian Asp, and all the other bombs we've talked about before. Removal is also high-pickable. Don't forget that the value of the deck depends on how many good creatures we have, and ramping to nowhere isn't a good plan.
Our second priority should be ramp. Voyaging Satyr isn't as valued as the Asp, but it's a card you should try to get. It's really important to make the deck work, and you shouldn't pass them unless there's a card that's really good or really important. Satyr Hedonist is much easier to get. Unlike Voyaging, it's only good in RG-colored decks, and if you don't see then wheeling, that means there's someone else going for the same deck as you.
Playing the Deck:
This deck's gameplan is really simple, which makes it really easy to play. One of our best matchups is aggro. Some decks try to stomp you with little creatures in the early game, and they'll be finding a turn 3 or 4 Asp that will just hold the onslaught unless it's met with removal. Pheres-Band Centaurs are very good in some copies for the side.
Against slower decks, curving out is the best we can do. It's not easy to stop creatures when a big monster is coming every turn. Time to Feed shines against other creature based decks, which could be stopping us with two medium-sized creatures.
Blue is the color that gives us more problems. Cards like Wavecrash Triton, Voyage's End and Griptide make it really difficult for us, specially when we're being attacked by tempo creatures.
Until next time, play well and have fun drafting!
-Beusapu
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